Dickens redressed : the art of Bleak house and Hard times
"Welsh closely examines the two novels Dickens wrote after David Copperfield and reassesses the importance of this crucial stage of Dickens's career." "In spite of the famous double narrative of Bleak House, says Welsh, the various actions and roles of the characters answer the needs of the protagonist much as they do in David Copperfield. Dickens redresses himself as the female narrator Esther Summerson and at the same time redirects his artistic energy in forms less explicitly personal. When he wrote Hard Times - which can be considered an epilogue to the much longer Bleak House - Dickens was able to conceive a plot neither centered around a hero nor fueled by the kind of wish fulfillment that structure had implied. Welsh's engaging discussion and original insights into two of Dickens's most successful novels will enhance the enthusiast's pleasure in reading these works and inspire longtime students of the novelist to think about Dickens's extraordinary accomplishments in new ways."--Jacket
Criticism, interpretation, etc
xviii, 225 pages ; 22 cm
9780300082036, 0300082037
43245915
Bleak house and Dickens
Esther Summerson, heroine
Ada Clare, pride and beauty
Honoria, Lady Dedlock
Jarndyce and Skimpole
The novel's satire
The novel's judgment
Dickens in Coketown
Louisa Gragrind's role
The novel and the circus